CHAPTER 29

Finn and Quinn pulled up to Veld's house a couple of minutes later and they got out of the car. However, rather than knocking on the door, Finn held her back. Instead, he silently tiptoed around to the side of the house and peered in through a window. He immediately spotted a pair of broken handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit lying on the floor and he gritted his teeth. He then walked back to Quinn.

"All right." He said. "Veld either has a prison guard fetish, which is a step up from being a dog killer, or he's got Davies holed up in there. How do you want to do this?"

"You go around back. I got the front." Quinn ordered. Finn nodded.

"Meet you in the middle." He said and the two of them split up. Finn climbed the 10 ft fence with ease and he approached the back door. He tried to kick it open but it wouldn't budge. He kicked it again and again and when it finally caved in, Finn went flying through and he landed on a warm body. Quinn and Finn groaned in pain as they lay on the ground.

"Did you seriously do that?" Quinn groaned. Finn smirked at her.

"Did you really bowl a perfect game?" He responded. Quinn shot him a death glare. Finn raised his hands in surrender. "I'm saying, in both scenarios, yes."

Suddenly, Davies ran past them and bolted out the door.

"Oh! Bad guy!" Finn exclaimed as the two detectives scrambled to their feet and followed the man. Davies ran down the fire escape and Finn followed him while Quinn left to go cut him off. He then jumped the house fence and sprinted out onto the street, causing several cars to swerve to avoid him. Suddenly, a truck connected to a trailer slowly drove into their path and blocked Finn from reaching Davies. As he was waiting for the truck to move, he heard three gunshots. Fearing for Quinn's safety, Finn climbed on top of the truck and leapt onto the other side of the street. But it wasn't Quinn that shot or was shot. Standing over Davies' motionless body was the Sheriff they had met the day before: Luke Barton.

"Drop the weapon!" Finn shouted, sprinting towards him. Luke lifted his gun and pointed it at Finn.

"I'd advise you to do the same, Detective." He said.

"What are you doing here?" Finn asked.

"Pursuing a suspect in the ranger murder." Luke replied.

"You just executed Davies." Finn growled.

"Nope, I shot a man in self-defense." Luke said, shaking his head. "He pulled a gun on me."

"The hell he did." Finn spat.

"Look again, Detective." Luke said. "It was him or me, and I've got to tell you, in those situations, it never ends up being me."

"Always a first." Finn replied. Suddenly, Quinn ran over to them, her gun raised.

"All right, why don't we all just lower our weapons so no one else has to get shot?" Quinn suggested, calmly.

"Detective Fabray, the bowler, and now the voice of reason." Luke murmured.

"Hey, Q, sorry to further lower your opinion of the Sheriff's department, but I'm pretty sure that Deputy Barton here's who killed our ranger, sprung Davies and now he just shot him in this alleyway before we had a chance to chat with him."

"You know what they say, there's always one bad apple." She remarked.

"Well, two. We can't forget about Veld. I mean, it was his house after all." Finn pointed out.

In the talking, neither detective noticed someone sneaking up behind them. Finn was the first to hear the shuffle of footsteps behind him. He spun around, expecting a bullet to pierce through the air. The bullet came, but it didn't hit Quinn or Finn. Instead, it buried into Veld's skull and Luke was the one who pulled the trigger.

"All right, now we're back down to one." Finn commented.

"You two mind lowering your weapons?" Luke snapped. "I just saved your life, Detective."

Finn nodded and slowly put his gun away. Quinn did the same.

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"So, after exactly a week of sobriety, how's it going?" Dr. Pillsbury asked. Going sober was something Finn decided the day they found the dead Texas Ranger and he took a drink at the crime scene. He finally realised that he was at a place in his life where he didn't need booze to dull the pain. Sure he missed Rachel - he missed her more and more each day, but he finally came to terms with the fact that she was gone and there was genuinely nothing he could do to change that. And in addition, he was actually starting to have feelings for someone else. Someone who was not only his professional partner but his best friend. Someone whose family took him in when nobody else would.

"How did you know?" Finn asked, astonished.

"Your eyes. They're clear. Sobriety suits you." She remarked. "So how's it going?"

"Um… amazing. Great. Awesome." Finn replied. Dr. Pillsbury raised an eyebrow.

"Well, no one said it was gonna be easy."

"I just said it was great, awesome and amazing so…"

"Right." She said, giving him her typical therapist smile.

"Right." He repeated.

"Well, is there anything that's not going great?"

"Uh, no. I mean… Oh, um… there was a kind of weird moment between Quinn and I the other day."

Dr. Pillsbury smiled and her eyes widened.

"Oh? What happened?"

"Well, it all happened a week or so ago…"

A week ago…

"Hold the lift!" Finn called, running towards the elevator and throwing himself into the lift. Quinn giggled as she stood in the lift and panted for breath.

"I thought SEALs are meant to have great stamina." Quinn remarked. "You know, it's not very comforting to know that the most elite men in the military can't run to a lift without getting out of breath."

"Okay, first of all, RETIRED SEAL." Finn argued. "And second, my beer belly doesn't really help."

"So why don't you go sober?" Quinn suggested, straight-up. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? Me? Sober? That's like Ironman without his suit." Finn laughed.

"No, that would be Ironman with a drinking problem." She responded.

"I think that would just be Ironman." Finn pointed out. Quinn giggled. The two of them stood silently in the lift until they made it to the outdoor car park. They walked together to their respective cars, which were parked away from one another. Finn watched as Quinn walked away towards her car and crossed the road. Suddenly, he noticed a car speeding towards her and his heart dropped. Quinn had earbuds in so she couldn't hear the car coming and Finn spotted that the car's driver was texting so he wouldn't stop.

"QUINN!" Finn shouted as he ran towards her. She didn't hear him though. She had no idea she was in any danger until Finn hurled himself onto the road and dived at Quinn. He knocked her out of the way and the two of them went tumbling towards the ground. A second later, the car zoomed past, not stopping at all and it could have easily hit Quinn.

That was the least of their problems right then. When they fell, Quinn ended up landing on top of Finn in a very compromising position. As she saw the car, she put two and two together and she went from confusion to disbelief. She scrambled to her feet and helped him up. Finn groaned in pain as he had taken the brunt of the fall as he had landed on the asphalt while Quinn had landed on him.

"Finn, you… you saved my life." She murmured. Finn shrugged.

"Of course." He replied. His mind was still reeling from everything that happened but the part that affected him was probably not the same part that affect Quinn.

Quinn threw her arms around him.

"Thank you!" She cried, tears leaking out of her eyes. Although she was a cop - a relatively dangerous profession, she rarely ever felt as close to death as she did there.

"Hey, it's okay. You're good."

"How can I thank you?" She asked. "You've gotta let me buy you a drink." She said. Finn shook his head.

"No thanks." He replied. Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? I'm offering to buy you drinks and you're saying no?"

Finn nodded and shrugged.

"You convinced me. I'm going sober…"

"I don't get it. What was the weird part?" Dr. Pillsbury asked once he was done telling the story. Finn sighed.

"Well, when she was on top of me, I felt a weird feeling. A tingle."

"Woah, dude, chill!" Dr. Pillsbury laughed, holding her hands up. "TMI!"

Finn rolled his eyes.

"No, not that kind of feeling. I mean like… sparks. Something I haven't felt since… well, since Rachel."

Dr. Pillsbury smiled.

"Finn, that's great news! You're finally starting to move on."

Finn looked down in shame.

"I can't forget her." Finn murmured, quietly. Dr. Pillsbury immediately knew who he was talking about. "She was such a huge part of my life. I can't forget her."

"And no one's asking you to." Dr. Pillsbury replied, gently. "But she'd want you to be happy. Move on. She was your first love and she'll always be an important part of your life. But you've hopefully got at least 50 more years of your life left. You shouldn't have to spend them alone."

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Later that night, Finn walked past Kurt's office and raised an eyebrow: Kurt was sitting in the corner of the room, a glass in his hands.

"Are you drinking scotch?" Finn laughed. Kurt nodded.

"Yes, I am." He replied. "You want a glass?"

Finn sighed and shook his head.

"Can't. 8 days sober." He replied. Kurt's eyes widened.

"Really? That's great, Finn!"

"Thanks. Wait, was that a test? Did I pass a test for the first time?"

Kurt shook his head.

"Not for you but maybe for me." Kurt remarked. Finn nodded.

"You know, normally I would be so confused right now." Finn admitted. "But do you know what fixes that? Sobriety."

"The past always catches up with us, doesn't it?" Kurt murmured.

"Past, present and future is a disaster, no matter how you slice it." Finn replied. Kurt took a deep breath and started talking quietly.

"My second year on the job… there was this guy, Azimio Adams. He raped and killed a ten year old girl. We had DNA evidence, but then, right before trial, the DNA sample got compromised in the lab so it was inadmissible. He was gonna walk. I knew this guy at the Sheriff's department, David Reed - run things now over there now. Anyway, David got me access to Azimio's jail cell when he was in the yard. Didn't take long to find what I was looking for."

"What was that?" Finn asked although he had a bad feeling that he knew how the story was going to end.

"A strand of Azimio's hair that found its way to the victim's sweater. Second time around, the DNA sample was not compromised and Azimio went away for life. I framed a man for murder, Finn."

Finn sat silently as he took in the bombshell that Kurt had dropped on him. Of course, what Kurt did was deathly wrong but Finn was going to be on Kurt's side no matter what.

"Come on. The guy was guilty, right? Justice served." Finn stated. "So, what? Has this Reed cat been putting the screws to you?"

"Yeah." Kurt sighed. "Says he'll ruin me if I don't back you guys off."

"Quinn know about this?"

Kurt shook his head.

"She was my partner at the time. Finn sighed.

"Well… you gotta talk to her. Hey, you're a good cop. Don't you ever forget that."

Kurt smiled faintly. This sober version of Finn was so different, in a good way!

"Go get him, Finn. Do it the right way."